Thiruvananthapuram: CPM state secretary M V Govindan made it clear on Wednesday that his party was in no mood to defer to the wishes of Nair Service Society and the BJP and the Congress.
"We don't intend to apologise nor change any of what has been said," Govindan told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram. "There is no need to amend any of what Shamseer said. What he said was absolutely true," the CPM secretary said.
Minutes after the party secretary's uncompromising stand, Speaker A N Shamseer came before reporters in Thiruvananthapuram and said he was only carrying out a Constitutional duty and had not hurt the sentiments of believers.
He invoked Article 51 A(h) of the Constitution that spoke of the need to inculcate a scientific temper and said: "As a person holding a Constitutional post, how can anyone say I had wounded the feelings of believers," the Speaker said. "Many had said similar things before me. No one can question my secular credentials," the Speaker said.
Speaker A N Shamseer has been accused of insulting Hindu gods during the inauguration of the Vidyajyothi Scheme at Kunnathunadu in Ernakulam early in July. Citing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech in 2014, the Speaker said that there were attempts to rebrand myths as scientific truths.
He specifically mentioned Modi's observations that traced the origins of plastic surgery, in-vitro fertilisation and aeroplanes to Lord Ganesha, Kauravas and the pushpaka vimana in Ramayana.
The Speaker's comments had even provoked Yuva Morcha to issue what looked like a life threat, which in turn gave rise to an apparent counter-death threat by CPM's Kannur strongman P Jayarajan.
The NSS onslaught came late but threatened a Sabarimala-like mass agitation of the faithful if Shamseer did not take back his words and apologise.
M V Govindan was clearly unmoved. Not only did he rule out an apology but repeated the very same observations of Shamseer that had apparently angered the NSS.
"It was on October 25, 2014, while inaugurating a Reliance hospital in Mumbai that Prime Minister Modi said that Ganesh was created through plastic surgery. Later at the Science Congress, a man disguised as a scientist said plastic surgery and aeroplanes existed during the Vedic period," Govindan said.
"This attempt to insinuate myths into history is wrong," he said. To a specific question, he repeated that the elephant God was a myth.
He said myths should be seen as myths and not scientific truths. "To connect them to modernity and then to make them seem like scientific truths is a travesty," he said.
The CPM secretary said that certain myths like the creation of Kerala by Parasurama's axe were animated by a dangerous class consciousness.
"The myth says that after Parasurama's axe lifted Kerala from the ocean, he handed it over to Brahmins. Such a myth obscures the fact that Kerala was formed long before people were organised into castes," Govindan said. These myths, he said were the result of feudal degeneration.
Nonetheless, he said that the faithful too had rights. "We will not question them," Govindan said.
"However, we cannot progress by debunking science," Govindan said. "Any attempt to exploit this (Shamseer's words) and communalise the situation, both in the name of community and politics, is dangerous," he said.
Govindan argued that the right-wing agenda to imbue myths with scientific credibility was nothing but an attempt to lead the country back to the dark ages of the caste system.
Both Govindan and Shamseer said the Hindutva brigade was unleashing hate campaigns across the country. "It is now happening in Manipur and Haryana. It had happened in Gujarat. Now they are trying to foment trouble in Kerala," Govindan said. "Creating riots is a fascist ploy," he said.
The Speaker, too, said that right-wing forces were trying to create an ambience of hate in Kerala. "But I am sure the faithful will reject it," he said and added: "I have not hurt anyone."
